Gabrielle, Titan, chapter 2
by VP19
Summary: Gabrielle discovers she's now a giant and meets Xena and Joxer.


**GABRIELLE, TITAN  
**  
Chapter 2  


  
Xena heard the cries of her accomplice, mounted Argo, and rushed to the lakefront. As soon as she got out of the forest, she dismounted the horse and peered up at Gabrielle's suddenly massive form. In fact, Xena barely reached the top of her boot.  
  
Gabrielle heard a noise near her feet, stared down, and was amazed to find a tiny Xena standing there.  
  
"What happened to you, Xena?" she cried. "You've shrunk!" "Think again, Gabby,"   
  
Xena said, pointing to Argo as proof things were not as her cohort believed. "Somehow, you've become a...a colossus. Remember this morning, what you said? Well, be careful what you ask for, because you've got it."  
  
Argo caught a glance of the much bigger Gabrielle and began to run in fear. Gabrielle quickly snared the horse--at her scale, the size of a puppy--put her near Xena, then knelt down toward her much smaller companion.  
  
"How'd I get so, so much larger?" Gabrielle said. "I mean, it's not as if I walked into a tavern and said, 'Supersize me.' This is incredible. How tall am I?"  
  
"Stand up, near that tree," Xena said, pointing at an oak not far away. Gabrielle stood up and complied, needing only two massive strides to reach the tree.   
  
"Hmmm," Xena said. "I would estimate you are at least 20 cubits tall. Bigger than my old friend Goliath, may he rest in peace. Close to titan size, in fact."  
  
"How am I going to live like this?" Gabrielle cried, consciously lowering the volume of her size-enhanced voice. "I'm a freak."  
  
"We'll figure out what to do with it later. In the meantime, we need to save a village from a warlord." Xena paused. "Do you remember when you accidentally roused the Titans from their stone prison, and you tried to use them to help people? Well, now you are your own titan, for all intents and purposes. Make the most of it."  
  
Just at that time, Joxer appeared on the scene, spotting Xena but somehow oblivious to Gabrielle. "I heard Gabby screaming for you, and I'm coming to her rescue, too," he said.  
  
"Joxer The Mighty? Hah!" a loud voice boomed from above. "You don't look so mighty to me."  
  
Joxer looked up, saw the towering form of the giant Gabrielle...and fainted.   
  
Amused, she picked up the doll-like man and put him atop a branch of a nearby tree.   
  
"You can't leave him there, not with him like that," Xena said. "If he falls off, he'll break plenty of bones."  
  
"All right," Gabrielle said, propping Joxer up on the branch which stood at about her waist level, placing her massive right hand at his back to keep him from falling and tickling him with her left hand. He woke up and nearly fell forward laughing, but Gabrielle wrapped her fingers around his waist.  
  
"I'm sorry I scared you, Joxer, but I couldn't resist," Gabrielle said.  
  
"Well, I should have known you'd finally do it," he replied. "It was probably too much to resist."  
  
"What in the name of Zeus are you talking about?" Xena interjected.  
  
"The purple ambrosia, of course," Joxer answered. "When you and Gabrielle found the Titans, she probably found it, as well."  
  
"Purple ambrosia?" Gabrielle said skeptically. "I've never heard of it."  
  
"A bard like you, not knowing of it?" he answered. "Well, it is _very_ rare, so I can understand. It is to Titans what regular ambrosia is to gods, and the legend is that any mortal who partakes of it can become a titan. But there is one thing here I do not understand."  
  
"And what is that, my little Joxer?"  
  
"If you consumed this purple ambrosia, how did your clothes manage to grow as well? By all rights, you should be naked."  
  
"You wish," Xena said with a smirk. "Tell us, Gabrielle, just what happened?"  
  
"I was escaping from that house over there, at the end of the lake. I had been fishing here until some soldiers took me captive. I jump into the lake normal-sized and come out...a titan." She paused. "So there must be something in the water that caused me to change."  
  
Meanwhile, a thirsty Argo had walked to the lake and began to drink. "Get away, get away," Xena yelled, and Argo shooed away. "Great, just what I need, a giant horse," she said. But the horse seemed unaffected by the water, and she showed no sign of growth.  
  
"If that water caused you to get bigger, the effect must have been very brief," Xena said. "I'm guessing something was deliberately planted in the water to make you this way. Whether you're a titan or just a larger mortal is anyone's guess."  
  
Gabrielle shook her head. "If I am a titan, does that mean I could be turned into stone? I remember that chant I read to save use from the Titans. How did it go--"  
  
"Don't dare even try to remember it!" Xena screamed. "For now, use your size to your advantage. You now have strengths and abilities mortals have only dreamed of. You wondered what it would like to be big and strong."  
  
"But not like _this_, Xena," Gabrielle replied.  
  
"It doesn't matter. Use it."  
  
"All right, then," the newly-created giant said. She turned to Joxer, stood up to her full titanic height, went to a nearby tree and broke a large thick branch as if it were a twig. "This is just to remind you what may happen if you pester me," she said, flicking the branch into the lake.   
  
"Let's go to the village," Gabrielle said. "I'll pick you up in my arms, lead Argo on a rope as if she were a small dog, and with my strides we can reach it before nightfall."   
  
She lifted Xena and put her in a side pocket of her skirt. "I must make you feel so puny," she quipped. "Little bitty Xena and her great big bard."  
  
"Very funny," she said.  
  
"What about me?" Joxer said. "Get me down from here."  
  
"Should we, Xena?" Gabrielle peered down to ask.  
  
"Naah," Xena said, and they began to walk toward the village.   
  



End file.
